A recent job perfectly showcases the value Rooter Hero gets from its RIDGID inspection camera systems.

A customer had a toilet issue and two different plumbers had come out to investigate. One said the customer needed a new sewer line. The other disagreed. A new sewer line wasn’t necessary. It was the toilet itself that just needed to be replaced. That’s when Rooter Hero came into the picture.

“We sent our people out there with a camera and we found that there was a rag stuck in the sewer line, right where the toilet meets the sewer line,” recalls Aldo Navarro, vice president of compliance and install for Rooter Hero. “Because of our camera equipment the customer saved a lot of money because they were about to invest $12,000 on a new sewer line. Instead the cost for them ended up being about $350.”

And for coming through as the literal hero, Rooter Hero maybe earned some customer loyalty for future work.

Go-to inspection camera

Rooter Hero, headquartered in Sacramento, has 14 locations across California and Arizona, with 550 employees. And of the many key pieces of equipment helping Rooter Hero satisfy its customers, Navarro singles out the company’s inspection cameras.

“It’s our No. 1 piece of equipment,” he says. “We’re able to identify and show clients what is happening with their plumbing. The cameras are big game-changers and we rely on them a lot.”

Rooter Hero uses a variety of brands for its inspection cameras, but RIDGID is easily the most prevalent, Navarro says. The company likes the trio of a RIDGID CS12x monitor, SeeSnake camera reel and NaviTrack Scout locator. Navarro says Rooter Hero has 50 sets of that equipment company-wide.

“We use some others, but mostly RIDGID. They’re the best in the business,” Navarro says. “They’re expensive, but they last the longest. The RIDGID SeeSnake cameras have been around forever. There’s a reason they are so popular, and Rooter Hero has a good amount of them.”

Favorite features

The camera’s digital self-leveling is one of Navarro’s favorite features. 

“You just put it inside the pipe and it levels itself out all the time,” he says. “You don’t have to worry about where’s the bottom of the pipe and where’s the top.”

Other key features for Rooter Hero’s inspection work that Navarro highlights are the monitor’s color display, on-screen footage counter and audio and video recording capability.

Customer confidence

It’s all about getting the best possible visual of a pipe interior, so that both Rooter Hero and the customer can be confident about the cause of pipe problems and the needed remedies, Navarro says.

“All drain cleaning calls we get, whether it’s a kitchen line or a main sewer line, we always recommend our technicians get a camera in there,” he says. “We want to make sure we did the job properly and also make sure there are no other issues with the pipe. And if there are, we’re able to identify them and show the client.”

Rooter Hero makes inspections mandatory for when a pipe repair is sold.

“Whenever we sell any repairs, we make it mandatory for the technicians to post before and after videos,” Navarro says. “So these cameras come in really handy for our compliance audits. We’re able to show anyone who wants to see why we sold a job, why the work was needed. And then of course at the end, we’re able to show the new pipe — lined, whatever we did. The after video to show that the job was completed. Before and after videos are very important.”

Easy returns

Navarro says the cost is about $16,000 for each set — the RIDGID CS12x monitor, SeeSnake camera reel and NaviTrack Scout locator.

“But the return on investment is tremendous because we can almost make up that $16,000 on one sewer repair,” he says. “Our average sewer repairs are about $12,000. So we can get it all back on just two jobs that we’re able to sell because of that inspection equipment.”